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Envelope not marked
"confidential" - sorry !
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
WASHINGTON
U. S. DEPT. OF INTERTOR
RECEIVED
FED 20 3 15 PH 63
IMMEDIATE OFFICE
OF THE SECRETARY
CONFIDENTIAL
February 20, 1963
Dear Mr. Secretary:
On February 5, Mr. Beaty and others from your Department discussed with the Legal Adviser of the Department of State and other officials in the Department of State the proposal of the Wellton-Mohawk irrigation district to modify its cropping pattern as one step which could be taken to alleviate the salinity problem on the lower Colorado River. In substance, the Wellton-Mohawk irrigation district believes that the substitution of some 35,000 acres of cotton to be grown in summer for an equivalent acreage of other crops now grown in winter, primarily, alfalfa, would help significantly. The effect of this change, as we understand it, would be to reduce drainage pumping in the winter by some 57,000 acre-feet, with a resultant reduction of the salinity of the water reaching Mexico in the winter months (October-February) from around 2700 p.p.m. to about 2000 p.p.m. The proposal in itself would have no effect on summer salinities (March-Sept.) which were about 1450 p.p.m. in the summer of 1962. Higher summer discharges with the present works at Wellton-Mohawk are not possible because the conveyance channel is now used to capacity.
The Department of State welcomes any proposal which would help alleviate the salinity problem. Although the legal and other problems which might be connected with carrying out the Wellton-Mohawk proposal are not within the purview of this Department, our comments on the proposal as it affects our foreign policy problems might be useful to you.
The Honorable
Stewart L. Udall,
Secretary of the Interior.
CONFIDENTIAL

Envelope not marked
"confidential" - sorry !
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
WASHINGTON
U. S. DEPT. OF INTERTOR
RECEIVED
FED 20 3 15 PH 63
IMMEDIATE OFFICE
OF THE SECRETARY
CONFIDENTIAL
February 20, 1963
Dear Mr. Secretary:
On February 5, Mr. Beaty and others from your Department discussed with the Legal Adviser of the Department of State and other officials in the Department of State the proposal of the Wellton-Mohawk irrigation district to modify its cropping pattern as one step which could be taken to alleviate the salinity problem on the lower Colorado River. In substance, the Wellton-Mohawk irrigation district believes that the substitution of some 35,000 acres of cotton to be grown in summer for an equivalent acreage of other crops now grown in winter, primarily, alfalfa, would help significantly. The effect of this change, as we understand it, would be to reduce drainage pumping in the winter by some 57,000 acre-feet, with a resultant reduction of the salinity of the water reaching Mexico in the winter months (October-February) from around 2700 p.p.m. to about 2000 p.p.m. The proposal in itself would have no effect on summer salinities (March-Sept.) which were about 1450 p.p.m. in the summer of 1962. Higher summer discharges with the present works at Wellton-Mohawk are not possible because the conveyance channel is now used to capacity.
The Department of State welcomes any proposal which would help alleviate the salinity problem. Although the legal and other problems which might be connected with carrying out the Wellton-Mohawk proposal are not within the purview of this Department, our comments on the proposal as it affects our foreign policy problems might be useful to you.
The Honorable
Stewart L. Udall,
Secretary of the Interior.
CONFIDENTIAL